Halo Movies

MOVIE TITLE	RELEASE DATE
2010. “Halo Legends”	February 16, 2010

STARRING:

SYNOPSIS:

The Babysitter

"The Babysitter" follows a team of four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or Helljumpers. The team is composed of Private O'Brien, Master Sergeant Cortez, Corporal Taylor Miles (Dutch) and Corporal Checkman. O'Brien is being replaced as the team's sniper by Cal-141, a SPARTAN-II, and is now the backup. The team is sent into a Covenant zone under the cover of a meteor shower to eliminate a Prophet. Checkman's pod burns up during entry, and O'Brien's lands in a swamp. Cal rescues the pod, but O'Brien isn't grateful. During the trek to the perch, the group encounter a village and Cal records the findings. O'Brien then tries to assassinate a grunt, but is attacked by a brute. Cal fights the brute and throws it over a waterfall, then rescues O'Brien who is nearly killed again. However O'Brien is still angry at being seconded. At the perch on the mountain, Cal lines up to take the shot, but the group is attacked when the brute returns. The ODSTs kill the brute, but find Cal severely injured. Cortez takes off the helmet to find Cal is female, and O'Brien is forced to take the shot, killing the prophet. Cal dies from her injuries, but gives Cortez the data on the village. Later, O'Brien laments on how he let his ego and pride rule him, and how he never thanked Cal for saving his life. Produced by Eiko Tanaka and directed by Toshiyuki Kanno.

The Duel

"The Duel" was produced by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and directed by Hiroshi Yamazaki, with creative supervision by Mamoru Oshii. The story follows an Arbiter who does not want to follow the Covenant religion. One of the Prophets accuses Fal of heresy. Fal will not yield and the Prophet sends another Elite to kill his wife in order to drag him to a trap.

The Package

On board a cloaked human ship, a group of elite supersoldiers called Spartans (John-117/Master Chief, Frederic-104, Kelly-087, Arthur-079 and Solomon-069) are briefed by an intelligence officer about their mission. A Covenant fleet is momentarily trapped in the system, and is carrying an important "package" the Spartans must retrieve. The ship decloaks and deploys the Spartans in small ships called Booster Frames. Solomon detects the package on one of the ships, but discovers too late that it is a ruse; Solomon is killed when the ship is destroyed. Master Chief deduces that their target is actually in the Covenant flagship. Arthur is killed trying to cover Kelly during the battle, and the rest of the Spartans board the Covenant ship. Making their way through thick Covenant defenses, Master Chief manages to recover the package-human scientist Catherine Halsey in cryonic hibernation-and the two escape via a Covenant escape pod. The remaining Spartans are recovered by the stealth ship and leave the system.

Origins

On board the ship Forward Unto Dawn, the artificial intelligence Cortana and Master Chief are stranded after the events of Halo 3. Cortana muses on her existence and what she has learned about the noble and ancient race known as the Forerunners. Cortana narrates past events: thousands of years ago, the Forerunners were a great civilization, but they came under attack by the parasitic Flood. The Forerunners underestimated the Flood, by which time it had spread, gaining the knowledge of the life it consumed. Though the Forerunners fought bravely, they eventually realized it was a futile fight. After trying other methods, they developed a weapon of last resort; an array of ringed megastructures called Halos that would destroy the Flood and their food supply-every sentient creature in the galaxy. While the Flood and Forerunner were wiped out by the Halo Array's activation, the Forerunners reseeded catalogued life throughout the galaxy.

The second part of "Origins" follows the rise of human civilization. Humanity's exploration and colonization of other worlds coincides with the rise of the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of alien races that worship the Forerunners and reverse-engineer their technology. The Covenant launches a massive war of extermination against the human race. The events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3 are summarized; a band of Covenant Elites ally with humanity to stop the Flood from spreading into the galaxy again, and the long war ends between human and Covenant. In the present, Cortana cryptically warns that the Halos are only one of the galaxy's many secrets. "Origins" was a chance to tell the story of the entire Halo universe in a clear fashion; many parts of the franchise had only been explored in what O'Connor called a "piecemeal" fashion.

Homecoming

On Harvest, UNSC forces are pinned down by Covenant. A Spartan codenamed Daisy-023 arrives and helps evacuate the UNSC forces. While in battle, Daisy has flashbacks to her past in the SPARTAN-II supersoldier project. When she decides to escape the project and return home, she finds a replacement clone of herself. Daisy draws her firearm, but cannot kill the clone and decides to return to the military. The clone gives Daisy a small teddy bear, similar to what Daisy had before she was inducted into the SPARTAN-II Project. In the present, Daisy is shot and killed; her body is found by the Master Chief, who picks up the teddy bear beside her and places it in her hands.

Prototype

A marine sergeant nicknamed Ghost and his demolition team are sent to destroy a prototype weapons facility to prevent it from falling into Covenant hands. Not wanting a repeat of his last mission, in which his entire platoon was killed, Ghost commandeers the heavy armor suit and uses it to provide cover for his squad as they evacuate. While Ghost deals massive damage to the Covenant forces, he is heavily outmatched and seriously wounded. As the last evacuation ships fly away, he uses the suit's self-destruct to destroy the nearby Covenant and complete his mission.

Odd One Out

Animated by Toei Animation Company written and directed by Daisuke Nishio, Odd One Out is a parody of the Halo universe and is not canon. It follows the adventures of Spartan 1337, a member of Master Chief's unit who suffers both from a severe ego and horrendous bad luck, although still a fairly competent fighter in his own right. He finds himself accidentally stranded on a planet after falling out of his transport. The planet is inhabited by dinosaurs and a group of stranded kids, the two oldest having superhuman strength. The Covenant test their latest weapon, a bestial warrior called Pluton. 1337 and the kids fight back, but are overpowered. However, the kids' ship (whose AI they refer to as "Mama") launches the beast into slipspace. When Cortana senses it, she tells Master Chief to leave it, as it is happy. 1337 makes for the rendezvous point, before being carried off by a pterodactyl.

MOVIE TITLE	RELEASE DATE
2012. “Halo 4 - Forward Unto Dawn”	5 October 2012

STARRING:

•Tom Green as Thomas Lasky
•Anna Popplewell as Chyler Silva
•Enisha Brewster as April Orenski
•Ayelet Zurer as Col. Mehaffey
•Masam Holden as Michael Sullivan
•Mike Dopud as Gen. Black
•Iain Belcher as Walter Vickers
•Osric Chau as Junjie Chen
•Kat de Lieva as Dimah Tchakova
•Daniel Cudmore as Master Chief
•Alex Puccinelli as the voice of Master Chief
•Jen Taylor as Cortana
•Jenna Berman as Kelly-087
•Tony Giroux as Frederic-104
•Chris Stevens as Dr. Hughes
•Max Carver as Cadmon Lasky
•Ty Olsson as Adult Lasky
•Darren O'Hare as the voice of Adult Lasky
•Robin August as Orlin
•Man Hung Chan as Junjie's Father
•Jill Teed as Col. Lasky

SYNOPSIS:

The series begins with Thomas Lasky, executive officer of the UNSC Infinity, picking up Cortana's distress signal from the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, which has been adrift in space for four years. Learning that SPARTAN-117 is aboard the ship, Lasky has a flashback to the events that led to him meeting the Spartan for the first time and how he inspired him to become a leader. The "present-day" segments, which feature clips of Cortana's inner monologues during her solitude aboard the Dawn, serve as a framing device for the main narrative, which focuses on Thomas Lasky as a young freshman cadet in Corbulo Academy of Military Science on Circinius IV amidst the Insurrection circa 2526. Organized into Hastati Squad, a freshman unit in the class of 2529, Lasky expresses sympathy for the Insurrectionists and shows a constant disregard for the orders of his superiors, resulting in Hastati receiving low combat scores and Lasky himself being shunned by the rest of the squad. Worse, his health declines rapidly during the school's mandatory acclimation to cryosleep, suffering blisters and a persistent cough.

In his spare time, Lasky replays video messages by his now-deceased brother Cadmon, with whom he used to have regular video correspondence. Most of Lasky's classmates, particularly Walter Vickers, are unrelenting in their provocation of Thomas, affirming their distaste for the freshman who fails to live up to the example set by his brother and his mother, a UNSCDF colonel and former superior of CAMS professor, Colonel Mehaffey. One of the few cadets sympathetic to him is Chyler Silva, who attempts to encourage Thomas to be a better leader, and Michael Sullivan, who cares little about his performance and focuses on hacking classified UNSC mission recordings, eventually uncovering footage recorded by a Spartan's helmet camera. Another Hastati Squad member, Junjie Chen, struggles to live up to the expectations of his father and is concerned about Lasky's poor performance decreasing his combat scores. Frustrated by the verbal and minor physical harassment he receives from Vickers, Lasky eventually assaults his squadmate in the school's mess hall. Lasky mildly injures Vickers and only stops when Colonel Mehaffey intervenes. Despite Lasky's consistent misbehavior, the Colonel makes an effort to have him embrace the warrior culture of the UNSC and inspire him to become a better leader.

Mehaffey's efforts dawn on Lasky and he volunteers to lead Hastati moments prior to the start of their final combat exercise, a contest of Capture the Flag. While waiting for Zuma Squad to approach their flag's location, Lasky organizes Hastati into cover in a tight formation adjacent their flag, a seemingly ill-tactical maneuver. Lasky orders his men to remove their helmets as they contain IFF transponders detectable by the enemy's motion sensors. With Zuma converging on Hastati's flag, Lasky positions his squad in a formation reminiscent of the pincer movement, a tactic utilized to great effect by Hannibal at Cannae in 216 BCE, taught to the freshman cadets only a day before the exercise by Col. Mehaffey. Funneled into a trap, the enemy cadets are eliminated or captured by two sections of Hastati cadets, with Hastati suffering no casualties of their own in the process. An emboldened Lasky, charging towards Zuma's flag, finally succumbs to his ailing health and collapses meters away from completing the objective.

Lasky wakes up and is informed by Dr. Hughes that his condition is an allergic reaction to the cryo drug cytoprethaline, which is vital for cryo-sleep to prevent damage to cells. Resting in his room, Lasky wakes up to see Chyler sitting beside him and watching his recordings. She urges him to stop wallowing in his brother's death and expresses concern for his condition; she also reveals that Hastati Squad was victorious in the capture the flag exercise, congratulating Lasky for his tactical maneuver. Lasky and Silva then join the rest of Hastati Squad to watch the classified recordings Sullivan has pieced together. To the great bemusement of the cadets, the footage shows large soldiers in unfamiliar armor, fighting unknown hostiles alongside Insurrectionists. The cadets are shocked by the soldiers appearance, although Silva is more surprised that the UNSC would be fighting alongside the Insurrectionists. Shortly afterward, Lasky learns that because of the severity of his cytoprethaline allergy, he is offered the choice for a medical discharge. The following night, Lasky reveals this to Silva, who professes that she will miss him if he leaves. The two kiss but are interrupted as an evacuation alarm goes off.

Lasky and Silva join the rest of Hastati Squad in a queue for the academy's space elevator, while Orbital Drop Shock Troopers drop in to the academy grounds. The stress of waiting proves too much for Dimah Tchakova, who against the orders of their squad leader April Orenski rushes in front of the queue and invokes her mother's position to allow a Marine to let her in the next elevator car. As the car ascends, the rest of the cadets watch in horror as three alien ships appear in the clouds and one of them opens fire on the space tether. The tether's lower structure collapses on the building and the members of Hastati Squad barely escape the destruction.

The cadets make their way through the embattled academy campus and Lasky witnesses Col. Mehaffey being killed by Needler fire. Hastati Squad regroups in Lasky's dorm room, but they are forced to move out as a Sangheili Zealot approaches, methodically slaughtering other cadets in their rooms. As the Elite enters another room, the cadets make a break for it with Chen taking point; however, Chen is killed by a camouflaged Zealot. The other cadets manage to escape to the armory and seal the door, with Lasky raising a distress beacon. The Elite eventually breaks through the armory's door and the cadets hide, Vickers being separated from the others. As the Elite closes in on the cadets' hiding spot, Vickers attempts to distract it to allow the others to escape but is promptly killed. The other cadets are only saved by the timely arrival of John-117, who kills the Zealot by stabbing it in the back.

The Spartan reveals that Lasky, Silva, Orenski and Sullivan are the only survivors on the entire planet and that they are to be evacuated; they will join with the rest of the Spartan team at the rendezvous point. Making their way outside, they are caught in a firefight with Jackal snipers and Sullivan is wounded. After the Spartan neutralizes the Covenant sharpshooters, the group use the now-deceased General Black's Warthog to drive out of the academy toward the evac point.

The Warthog is ambushed by Jackals on the journey and becomes irreparably damaged, and the squad is forced proceed on foot. Silva realizes that she has taken a needler round to the stomach; the squad flees into the jungle as the Chief engages and kills a single Hunter. With all biofoam having been used to treat Sullivan's leg, however, Silva dies shortly afterwards. Having ran out of ammunition during the previous fight, the Spartan plans to distract the second Hunter while the cadets run to safety. Distraught at Silva's death, Lasky volunteers to take the Chief's place. As the Hunter is focusing on Lasky, the Chief successfully uses a grenade to neutralize the walking tank. The battered team makes it to the rendezvous point at dawn, where they are picked up by a Pelican carrying Kelly-087 and Frederic-104. The Chief commends Lasky for valor under fire, and gives him an armor fragment from the Hunter as a memento.

Back in the present, Commander Lasky prepares to enter cryo while holding his dog tags; Silva's dog tags and the Hunter armor fragment are attached to the tags' chain, Lasky having kept them for over three decades. The Infinity and its escorts jump into slipspace, with Requiem as their destination. As the Dawn's wreckage is inexorably pulled toward the mysterious shield world, Cortana prepares to reawaken the Master Chief at last.

MOVIE TITLE	RELEASE DATE
2014. “Halo - Nightfall”	11 November 2014

STARRING:

•Mike Colter as Jameson Locke
•Christina Chong as Talitha Macer
•Steven Waddington as Randall Aiken
•Luke Neal as Michael Bradley Horrigan
•Alexander Bhat as Alistair Bov Estrin
•Alexis Rodney as Arris Le
•Christian Contreras as Gregory Aio Ramos
•Eric Kofi Abrefa as Haisal Wari
•Jennie Gruner as Samantha Wisner
•Sarah Armstrong as Jordan Gaines
•Shaun Blaney as Mason Hundley

SYNOPSIS:

Chapter One - It's Only Just Beginning

The series opens with Colonel Randall Aiken, the Sedran Colonial Guard's commander, looking upon a sunset over Sedra City in his apartment with his daughter Natalie. In a voice-over, Aiken monologues about the nature of being a soldier and ominously hints at the events to come.

The story proper begins on the outskirts of Sedra City, where Lieutenant Commander Locke and his four-man team trail a Yonhet smuggler. The alien meets with a Sangheili Zealot and hands him a device known to be used to contain bombs. The ONI agents split up; Ramos apprehends the Yonhet while Locke goes after the Zealot. Locke follows the Elite into a city access tunnel, but the Zealot escapes after a brief duel. In the city, ONI operatives Jordan Gaines and Mason Hundley are implementing lockdown protocols but fail to prevent the Zealot from entering a crowded mall. Locke confronts the Sangheili and attempts to force him to surrender, but the Zealot instead jumps off a ledge and activates the device. The weapon releases an energy pulse which covers the entire city and beyond but appears harmless at first. However, civilians soon start showing symptoms of infection, having difficulty breathing and their veins being turned into darkened tendrils. Gaines and Hundley, who were in the immediate vicinity of the blast, are also affected and are taken to a Sedran Colonial Guard hospital where Colonel Aiken initially refuses to let the agents in due to his dislike of ONI. However, Locke convinces the colonel to allow the injured operatives to be treated.

While Locke and his team undergo decontamination, reports continue to arrive of infections up to ten kilometers from the blast site. The bioagent, an entirely foreign element, appears to randomly break down human DNA, but does not affect the other species that also inhabit Sedra. Locke theorizes that the remote colony may have been chosen as a target to test the weapon before the terrorists move on to more populous worlds. The Colonial Guard find a colonial tug used to smuggle the element on the planet, but the pilots are nowhere to be found. Colonel Aiken reluctantly agrees to work with the ONI agents to track down the source of the element. Aiken violently interrogates the captured Yonhet, named Axl, about the identity of the tug's pilots. However, Locke, speaking an alien language, manages to persuade Axl to divulge what he knows. The Yonhet reveals that the element originated from a place even Sangheili Zealots avoid, calling it "hell". The Zealots instead buy it from smugglers who are willing to go there.

Tracing the tug's positioning reveals that the vessel obtained the element from a fragment of Installation 04 that was thrown through slipspace during the ring's destruction and ended up orbiting perilously close to a red giant. However, there is no record of the mystery element being previously present on the ring, but Sedran Private Talitha Macer points out that it may have been newly formed in the supernova-level temperatures of the ring's explosion. A scan reveals that the element is found nowhere else in the observable universe. After detecting another tug approaching the ring, ONI opts to land there, capture the smugglers to gain proof of the Covenant breaking their peace treaty with the UNSC, and destroy the deposits of the element with a HAVOK nuclear warhead. The mission is particularly challenging because of the Halo fragment's close orbit to the red giant and its rapid spin around itself; when it faces the star the shard's habitable side undergoes extreme heat that is unbearable for any human. The fragment's environment only experiences survivable temperatures during the sixteen hours of "night" when the habitable side is facing away from the star, forcing the team to complete their mission within this timeframe. Locke contacts Rear Admiral Goodwin who approves the mission. After Colonel Aiken's daughter dies of the infection he and a Sedran Colonial Guard team join Locke's ONI unit and head for the Halo shard on a Condor dropship.

Chapter Two - Sourced from Hell

The second chapter opens with the team's Condor in slipspace on its way to Alpha Shard. During the journey, the ONI agents bicker with the Sedrans while Locke reveals to Private Macer that Colonel Aiken was once a Spartan, Randall-037, showing her a data pad with Aiken's file which includes an image of him in MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. The crew arrive at their destination and land on the Halo's surface. Donning their powered Nightfall armor, the ONI operators jump out of the Condor at a significant height while the Sedrans, with their less sophisticated combat suits, must rappel down. Macer pilots the dropship while most of the others move to secure an Alerian tug seemingly used by the smugglers. The freighter is empty but is accompanied by a compartment used to store horses, as well as hoof prints leading away from the site. The ONI-Sedran Colonial Guard team move to the tracks' direction and come across two smugglers - Arris Le and Haisal Wari - mining the element in a cave. The smugglers attempt to escape but are quickly caught and restrained by the ONI agents.

The group heads back to the Condor for extraction; however, while the dropship is setting down, a large number of Thanolekgolo appear and begin to swarm all over its airframe, plunging it out of control. Macer is thrown out of the Condor, which then flies off erratically and crashes in the distance. More of the worms appear in large gestalt formations, killing the horses and three of the Sedrans. Fast and agile, the Lekgolo begin to pursue the group who escape to a narrow crevice where Locke uses a special appliance to holographically camouflage their position from the aliens, but the aliens quickly notice the camouflage projector and devour it. Arris is able to reveal that the creatures can sense active technology and movement, prompting the group to shut down the electronics present in their equipment. The Lekgolo examine the group, who avoid detection by remaining completely still. In the end most of the worms leave and the group move out of the crevice. Locke grabs a sole remaining individual Lekgolo and squeezes, killing it.

Chapter Three - Lifeboat Rules

While the nine remaining members of the team continue their trek across the surface it becomes apparent that due to their lack of off-world communications and the destruction of the Condor, the smugglers' two-seated tug will be the only means of escaping Alpha Shard, meaning that part of the group will have to be left behind. Colonel Aiken concludes that the team must work together until the mission is complete, whereupon they will draw straws to decide which two individuals will make it. They then move out to obtain the HAVOK warhead from the wreckage of the Condor and destroy the deposits of the element. To prevent detection by the Lekgolo, the group remove their armor, although they retain the ONI operatives' oxygen packs due to the limited amount of oxygen in the local atmosphere.

During the trek toward the crash site, tensions within the group begin to come to a head as Horrigan suggests that the ONI crew should leave the Sedrans and smugglers behind. The smugglers remain reluctant to help, although Locke offers them a chance of survival, promising they will get to draw straws along with the others. The group soon take a break to refill on oxygen from the ONI agents' packs, but the activation of the devices alerts the Lekgolo to their location. As they continue onward, Samantha Wisner drops her breather and falls behind in an attempt to retrieve it. However, the device is activated upon rolling down a hill, attracting the Lekgolo to it. Ramos comes to check on Wisner, who desperately grabs him for help as the Lekgolo swarm over her. Ramos attempts to pull Wisner to safety but one of the Lekgolo bites his hand and he loses his grip. The worms then viciously devour Wisner while Ramos escapes just as Locke arrives to check on him.

As the Lekgolo swarm attacks the group, Locke falls down a hill and his foot is stuck under a rock. Against Aiken's orders, Macer rushes to help Locke as the worms approach him. Locke urges Macer to leave, giving her the two breathers he is carrying and prepares to make a final stand against the aliens. However, Macer instead activates one of the packs and throws it away as a decoy to draw in the Lekgolo swarm while she saves Locke. The two then return to the rest of the group.

Chapter Four - Gods of the Damned

With less than three hours left, the remaining members begin to despair. A shadow appears above of them, revealing to be a Lekgolo swarm taking Wisner's appearance. Horrigan throws Haisal to the worms, killing him and giving the team time to escape. Upon evading the immediate danger, Arris attempts to strike Horrigan, but is stopped by Estrin while Locke reprimands Horrigan for "playing god". As they move out, Locke converses with Aiken, with both knowing that factions will start to emerge within the team. Aiken tells him that he is already dead and he's willing to die, but Locke reproves him, saying he plans to survive. Aiken asks him if he is willing to sacrifice his team's lives to accomplish his goals. Locke replies that he is not willing to sacrifice his men. Minutes later, Horrigan speaks with Locke in private, desperately urging him to choose him to escape the fragment, but Locke maintains that he will let luck choose.

The group arrive at a cliff, the bottom of which is overrun with Lekgolo worms. Ramos begins to lose his composure, watching a recording of his sons on his TACPAD, but Estrin throws the device away and snaps Ramos back to his senses. As they negotiate the edge of the cliff, Ramos proposes an alliance with Estrin but he rejects. Estrin trips off the cliff edge and urges Ramos to help him, to no avail; Estrin then falls into the abyss below, killing him. Once off the cliff, the survivors prepare to have an oxygen break, but a standoff ensues as Horrigan threatens Colonel Aiken and demands him to give up the sole remaining oxygen tank. Locke trains his pistol on Horrigan and orders him to stand down, but Ramos sides with Horrigan and the two force Locke to yield. Horrigan and Ramos then betray the team, take Arris as a hostage and they leave to the tug. Without weapons, oxygen and time, Macer says they are hopeless, but Aiken reveals to Locke and Macer that they have arrived at the Condor.

Chapter Five - Devil Take the Hindmost

While Ramos, Horrigan, and Arris attempt to go back to the tug, Arris tries to put Ramos against Horrigan by saying Horrigan is using both of them. Meanwhile, in the Condor, Locke, Aiken, and Macer find some weapons and finds that the Condor, now damaged, doesn't have the capacity to get them out of the ring, but they can go to the tug. Ramos confronts Horrigan but he replies to him that the tug has autopilot but also a biometric scan which is the reason why they needed Arris in the first place. With less than 30 minutes left, Aiken and Locke try to start to detonate the HAVOK nuke, but Macer reveals that there's a problem - the Condor has enough thrusters to fly but its cells are damaged, meaning they cannot get out of the canyon. Aiken then makes a plan - if they use the HAVOK's emergency cell, the Condor will have energy. Aiken orders Macer to put it into the Condor's system, but Locke says that they can't leave the bioweapon source intact. Aiken replies that the only way they can complete the mission is if only two of them go to the tug and the third manually activate the HAVOK. Near the tug, Ramos begins to suffocate, and he and Horrigan begin to use the last air source, but Arris manages to escape with the help of a laser cutter which he uses to cut his binds.

In the Condor, Macer manages to activate the ship and Aiken orders to both of them to go to the tug, but both refuse. Aiken then breaks his daughter's necklace and empties some of the beads in his hand. He then explains that it will be decided by luck - the one who draws a red bead from his enclosed hand will stay behind while those with white ones are spared. In the end, it seems the one who will activate the HAVOK is Aiken. Before they part ways, Locke promises Aiken they will see each other in Valhalla. When Locke and Macer leave in the Condor, Aiken reveals he cheated by hiding his red bead from view; there were no red beads in his hand since he wanted both of them to survive. Almost reaching the tug, both groups are attacked by Lekgolo worms; Horrigan betrays Ramos by activating his backpack, breaking his leg, and leaving him to be killed by the worms. The Condor crashes, Locke helps a crippled Macer and races to the tug. Arris starts the tug and the Lekgolo start going to the tug. Desperate, Horrigan turns on his assault rifle and kills Arris, but on his way to the ship, he is devoured by the worms, and they begin to envelop the tug. With no means to escape, Locke and Macer hide behind a few rocks. With few minutes to the sunrise left, Aiken activates the HAVOK and, unconsciously, draws the Lekgolo out of the tug and towards him. Locke and Macer enter the tug and escape the ring. At the same moment, the HAVOK detonates, killing Aiken, the Lekgolo, and destroys the ring fragment with its deposits along with it.

Locke and Macer watch the ring being destroyed and return to Sedra. While there, Locke walks through the outdoor market in Sedra City while in deep thought. In these sequences, a final monologue from Aiken is heard:

"Death will come to all of us. Especially soldiers. It will come, inevitable as the sun. It is only to be feared if you fear what is on the other side of it, if you see darkness in your soul rather than light. In a way, I suppose soldiers are gods. You give your life away so others will live in peace, even if it's only fleeting. The ones who live carry parts of you with them, your deeds become seeds for theirs. The sacrifice carries forward. And in their final moments as a soldier, you know they will have to answer the same question you did in yours - with your life, would you only create death, or with your death would you create life? That is my question to you, Commander Locke, how will you die? And for what?"

Second Stories

Every episode of Nightfall includes "Second Story" videos that expand and provide insight on characters and events of the series.

MOVIE TITLE	RELEASE DATE
2015. “Halo - The Fall of Reach”	December 1, 2015

STARRING:

SYNOPSIS:

Section I - Reveille

The story itself begins with Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lieutenant, Junior Grade Jacob Keyes on board the Han - a UNSC Vancouver-class courier. Traveling to the colony world Eridanus II, their mission is to identify a potential candidate, John, for Halsey's SPARTAN-II program. Dr. Halsey finds John in a school playground in Elysium City, where she determines his suitability for the program. Using a coin, she tests John's reflexes by flipping the coin in the air and having him identify the side it will land on. John catches it and correctly identifies the side - the eagle. During this time, Halsey gives John the coin, which is later taken from him.

Section II - Boot

The plot then goes on to show, in detail, the brutal indoctrination and training regime that John and his fellow Spartans are put through. Chief Petty Officer Mendez trains the Spartan-IIs, showing them the many necessary virtues of a soldier (e.g. courage, teamwork, skill, etc.) whilst the AI Déjà teaches them history, mathematics, and physics. After a daring training mission in the wilds of Reach - where the young Spartans regroup, construct a map of the area from separate pieces, and steal a dropship back to base - John-117 is made squad leader of the Spartans. When the Spartans are fourteen, they undergo intense biological enhancements that effectively triple their strength, drastically decrease their reaction times, make their bones practically indestructible, and increase blood flow to their eyes so that they can almost see in the dark, among various other improvements. However, of the 75 Spartans, less than half emerge still fit for combat; the rest wash out and die during the operations or are horribly injured by the augmentation process. While recovering on the Atlas, John gets into a fight with a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, but ends up accidentally killing two of them. The speedy arrival of Chief Mendez leads John to suspect that the incident may have been arranged.

After returning to Reach, the Spartans quickly prove that the augmentations have surpassed all expectations, and their cohesion in battle is amazing. The Spartans are then issued orders to capture Colonel Robert Watts, an Insurrectionist leader in the Eridanus asteroid belt. John leads a small team, consisting of Samuel-034, Linda-058, Kelly-087, and Frederic-104, which manages to infiltrate the Insurrectionists' asteroid base and capture Watts. John is wounded during this mission and is subsequently awarded a Purple Heart.

On February 3, 2525, first contact is made with an alliance of alien races that refers to itself as the Covenant. A single Covenant warship exterminates the entire surface population of the Outer Colony Harvest. Three UNSC warships - the destroyer Heracles and the frigates Arabia and Vostok - are sent to investigate this incident and initiate first engagement protocols. They attempt contact, engage the Covenant ship in battle, and are subsequently routed. Only the Heracles manages to return to Reach, having been badly damaged. By December of the same year, the UNSC has mobilized a massive fleet under the command of famed war hero Vice Admiral Preston Cole, with orders to reclaim the Harvest colony and stop the Covenant advance.

In response to the emergence of the Covenant, the Spartans' graduation occurs earlier than anticipated, while Chief Mendez leaves to train the next class of Spartans, giving John some advice before returning the coin Dr. Halsey gave him years earlier. Dr. Halsey takes the Spartans to Chi Ceti IV to retrieve Project - MJOLNIR. Upon arriving in the system, the Commonwealth - the frigate carrying the Spartans - is attacked by a Covenant ship. The Commonwealth engages the Covenant ship and is able to drive it off, but sustains significant damage. Heading to the Damascus Testing Facility, Dr. Halsey introduces the Spartans to the MJOLNIR power armor, which further enhances the Spartans' already significant strength and speed. While returning to the Commonwealth, John comes up with the idea to go EVA, board the Covenant vessel, and destroy it using HAVOK nuclear weapons. Only three Spartans - John, Sam, and Kelly - manage to board the ship. They fight their way past the crew, a birdlike race later dubbed Jackals, and are able to make their way to a reactor, but Sam's armor is penetrated and he is forced to stay behind or die upon exposure to vacuum. John and Kelly are able to escape as the Covenant ship is destroyed.

Section III - Sigma Octanus

Admiral Cole's fleet manages to gain a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two-thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of human commanders, the superior technology possessed by the Covenant gives the latter a crucial advantage in the war. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall to the onslaught and by 2536, virtually all have been destroyed.

To protect the location of Earth, Vice Admiral Cole establishes the emergency order commonly known as the Cole Protocol - if any Covenant forces are present, selective purges of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks are to be activated. When human forces are forced into retreat, they must not execute a slipspace jump in the direction of Earth or any major population center, even if this forces them to jump without the necessary navigational calculations (a "blind jump"). If such a jump is not possible, and if capture is imminent, the commanding officer must order a self-destruct. The on-board ship artificial intelligence construct, normally imperative to navigation and tactical decisions, must either be removed or destroyed.

Due to the shortage of effective officers, Jacob Keyes is promoted to Commander and assumes command of the UNSC Iroquois. In 2552, he foresees a Covenant attack on Sigma Octanus IV thanks to a paper by Spartan washout Fhajad-084. His actions result in the destruction of a Covenant Wik-pattern light destroyer and two frigates, as well as the routing of a carrier, with a daring maneuver dubbed the "Keyes Loop". This unprecedented victory against a Covenant force earns him a promotion to Captain and helps him become recognized by the entire UNSC. Keyes and the Iroquois remain in the Sigma Octanus system to partake in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV.

On the ground, the Marine force is slaughtered save for a small group of survivors, so Spartan Blue, Red, and Green Teams are sent to destroy a Covenant occupation force in the city of Côte d'Azur with a nuclear bomb. In the city, they find the Covenant has occupied a museum and discover a new race called Engineers. While Red and Green Teams escort a group of civilian survivors to the landing zone, Blue Team - John, Kelly, Fred, and James-005 - enter the museum and discover two massive aliens - Hunters. The Hunter pair seem to be scanning a rock and transmitting the data to a stealth ship, which Captain Keyes discovers and destroys. The Spartans are able to neutralize the Hunters, acquire the rock, and escape to the landing zone, where they detonate a nuclear bomb and annihilate the Covenant presence. Keyes later returns to Reach, inadvertently disclosing the location of the planet to the Covenant via a homing beacon attached to the Iroquois. An ONI committee debriefs him. There, he meets John-117 once again. Scans of the rock produce a set of alien symbols that do not match any Covenant dialect. Dr. Halsey concludes that the artifact is from a separate race from the Covenant.

Section IV - MJOLNIR

By 2552, the Covenant have destroyed many of humanity's Inner Colonies. In a move of desperation, ONI Section 3 orders the execution of a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using the Spartans. The ship would be taken to the Covenant home world in order to capture a Prophet, one of the aliens' religious leaders, and then use the Prophet as a bargaining chip to negotiate a truce.

To aid the Spartans in this mission, an AI, Cortana, from Dr. Halsey's previously cloned brain is used. John is introduced to Cortana during a live-fire mission to test their capabilities working together, and they perform spectacularly. With Cortana's aid, John manages to overpower a full squad of ODSTs, pick his way through a minefield, destroy automated chain guns, and even evade an airstrike from a SkyHawk fighter, all of which are using live rounds. These were authorized by Colonel James Ackerson - Dr. Halsey's main rival for NAVSPECWEP funding. In a move of revenge, Cortana arranges for a substantial amount of the Colonel's private funds to be sent to a brothel and forges a request for his reassignment to front line duty.

Every available Spartan-II boards a specially outfitted Halcyon-class cruiser known as the Pillar of Autumn, which is under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes. The Pillar of Autumn moves out towards the edges of the system to make a slipspace jump to begin the mission.

Section V - Reach

Autumn's mission is interrupted when a massive fleet of 315 Covenant ships enters the Epsilon Eridani system. Captain Keyes orders the Pillar of Autumn back towards Reach, but the Master Chief convinces him to allow the Spartans to continue their mission by finding a damaged Covenant ship to capture and take to Covenant space. Reach's fleet - with about a hundred ships and twenty orbital defense platforms on hand - engages the Covenant fleet, but takes massive losses. However, the Super MAC platforms manage to repulse the initial Covenant assault.

The Covenant return and land troops on Reach with the objective of destroying the generators for the Super MACs - the only things that are stopping the Covenant. At the same time, the UNSC realizes that the Circumference, a prowler, is still docked at a station orbiting the planet of Reach just before its fall, and has not initiated the Cole Protocol. John takes Linda-058 and James-005 to deal with the Circumference, while the rest of the Spartans are sent down under Fred to the planet to defend the MACs' power generators.

John's team crash-land their Pelican on Gamma Station, on which the Circumference is docked, and move towards the NAV data. Among the Covenant attack force are the Elites, the leaders of the Covenant military. However, James' thruster pack is hit by a Needler shard and explodes, sending James flying uncontrollably into space. John and Linda proceed to the Circumference, where they find Sergeant Johnson and his Marines, including Jenkins and Bisenti, also fighting to wipe the data. With John's help, the Marines are successful, but Linda is shot by five separate plasma blasts. The humans fall back to the Autumn; Linda is clinically dead because of the extensive wounds she receives, but is placed in a cryotube in the hope that she can later be resuscitated.

The surface of Reach is also overrun. The Spartans who John sent to the surface are all presumed by the Autumn's crew to be overrun and slaughtered. Without the generators, the Super MACs fall silent and are destroyed by the Covenant, who soon begin glassing the planet. The remaining UNSC ships are all destroyed, except for the Pillar of Autumn, as Cortana plots an exit vector in compliance with the Cole Protocol, though not completely at random. A comment by the Master Chief leads Cortana to reinterpret the alien symbols from the artifact as star charts. The NAV coordinates lead the Pillar of Autumn to what the Covenant had been searching for - Halo, an extremely sacred artifact to the Covenant. The book ends with Captain Keyes looking through view screens at the ring, asking Cortana to identify the object.